Shadow Games
by pale rose fire
Summary: Kuroko's hobby of people watching has evolved into the ability to do Sherlock Scans and predict crimes. Kagami and the rest of Seirin have no idea what they've gotten themselves into. Chapter 3: Kuroko investigates a string of suicides and finds himself on the trail of a serial killer.
1. First Games

**First Games**

Summary: Kuroko realizes that the convenience store he and Kagami are in is about to be held up. Kagami realizes that Kuroko has an incredible gift.

(This fic is set in an AU where Kuroko's hobby of people-watching has evolved into the ability to do Sherlock Scans and notice details that the majority of the world would overlook. His own moral code forces him to act when he sees something wrong happening, and the boatload of psychological issues he's been carrying since middle school have been twisted too, causing him to take dangerous risks and act self destructively at times)

* * *

"Kagami-kun. Please listen."

The tone that Kuroko used, more than his words, got Kagami's attention. He would have paid attention to what Kuroko was saying anyway. He and Kuroko were getting to be good friends, and he'd come to realize that the boy who'd promised to be his shadow and help him defeat the Generation of Miracles was grotesquely overlooked in day to day life, by the world at large. Kagami made it a point to hang out with Kuroko outside of school because it was clear the kid had no one, and Kagami intimidated most people to the point where he didn't really have anyone either. But if Kuroko was specifically asking for attention, he would obviously give it to him. But his tone was now urgent in a way Kagami had never heard Kuroko sound before. It was similar to the one Kuroko used when he had something important to say on the basketball court, but way more intense.

Immediately, Kagami's guard went up. "What's wrong?"

"The man in the black hoodie is about to hold up this convenience store with a fake gun. Please go punch him in the face and stop him."

Kagami couldn't help it. He stared dumbly at Kuroko and tried to make sense of the words. "Sorry, Kuroko, my Japanese is rusty. I don't think I understood what you said right."

"The man in the black hoodie." Kuroko motioned toward him urgently. "He's a failed manga artist who's on the verge of being evicted from his apartment if he misses another payment, and he's about to try to rob this convenience store with a fake gun. So please go punch him in the face and stop him."

"Say that one more time," requested Kagami.

"There's no time!" Kuroko's expression changed as he tracked the guy he believed was about to rob the convenience store. The man had just started toward the registers, after the last customer in line had checked out, and Kuroko's expression changed to one that said he thought he was going to have to do this by himself. He, as well, started toward the registers.

Kagami didn't know what to do. On the one hand, Kuroko wasn't the kind of guy to fly off the handle and make something like this up. On the other, how could Kuroko possibly know any of that?

"Open the register! Give me all your money!"

Kagami gawked.

What Kuroko had just predicted was going to happen had just happened.

Behind the register, the cashier stood frozen. The gun that was trained on him looked very, very real. Kagami wouldn't put bets on it being fake. And Kagami knew what guns looked like. He'd grown up in America. He'd seen real guns before. Hell, he owned one, even though handguns were illegal in Japan. And if this one was fake, it was a very, very realistic fake.

"Please stop."

"Whah!" the robber jumped as Kuroko seemingly appeared right next to him out of nowhere.

"It's wrong to take other peoples' money," said Kuroko in his usual deadpan.

"Sh-shut up! Or I'll blow your brains out you stupid kid!" the man shouted, turning his gun on Kuroko.

"You won't," said Kuroko. "You can't. Your gun is an artist's replica."

"It's not a replica!" shouted the robber. "It's a real gun."

"It's not," Kuroko said.

"It is!"

"Then please shoot me."

By this time Kagami was grinding his teeth, but afraid to move forward with that very real looking gun aimed right at Kuroko's head. His heart was beating out of control and he just knew that he was going to have nightmares about this, whether Kuroko survived this or not.

The robber stood frozen except for his shaking hands, and shaking gun, which he still had pointed at Kuroko. He didn't shoot him, thank God, but you could see the desperation building in his eyes.

Kagami realized what the robber was going to do a second before he did it. He lunged forward, but he was too far away. The robber pistol whipped Kuroko across the face. Fake gun or not, it still seemed very solid, and Kuroko went down.

"Bastard!"

Kagami crashed into the would-be robber, slamming into him and knocking him right into a snack rack. Their momentum and combined weight toppled the snack rack, and the magazine rack on the other side of it. The gun fell from the robber's hand, and Kagami knocked it out of both their reach, then proceeded to lay into the man with his fists, pummeling him furiously, taking revenge for his shadow.

"You don't touch him! You don't point a fucking gun at him! Not my friend, you bastard!"

"Kagami-kun . . . I think that's enough, Kagami-kun."

Kuroko's voice snapped Kagami out of his rage. He looked up and saw Kuroko on his feet. He had his hand held to his forehead, over his right eye. Blood was dripping down his face, giving Kagmi an infuriatingly worried feeling of déjà vu.

When he looked down at the man he was pummeling, Kagami saw that the would-be robber seemed to have lost consciousness. Kagami made a disgusted noise and punched him once more before letting him fall to the floor. Then he stood and moved toward Kuroko.

"You're hurt."

"I'll be alright," said Kuroko.

"You're going to the hospital."

"I don't need –"

"That's the second time this month you've been hit in the head. You're getting checked out for it," growled Kagami. He tried to remember what Coach and Captain had done when this happened before. Then there was the extra factor of the robber to be taken into consideration. He turned to the convenience store's employee. "Call the police. Then get a first aid kit."

"I think the robber got off worse than I did," said Kuroko.

"He got off easy," Kagami growled. Nobody touched his friends and got off free.

* * *

They stuck around until the police came. Then they had to answer some questions. The security footage confirmed everything they told the two detectives had happened. The detectives watched it on the premises and made a copy of it for evidence to be used at trial. That should have been the end of their involvement, but after watching the security footage, the younger of the two detectives came back to address Kuroko.

"You were moving to intervene before that man pulled his gun."

Kagami and Kuroko had both left out the fact that Kuroko seemed to know beforehand what was going to happen. Kuroko had only told what happened after the man pulled the fake gun. Not that he'd known beforehand and tried to get Kagami to stop him before it could happen. Kagami hadn't revealed that either, since Kuroko hadn't. He'd planned on asking Kuroko about it later but it seemed he'd be getting his answers now.

"Yes. I was," deadpanned Kuroko.

"Why?" asked the detective, who'd introduced himself as Detective Yagami, seeming unphased by Kuroko's short answer.

"Because I knew he was going to pull out a fake gun."

"How could you have known that?" demanded Yagami's partner, one Detective Matsuda. "Unless you were an accomplice?"

"No," Kuroko said immediately, and Kagami only knew he was worried because he was starting to get to know Kuroko.

"If you confess everything you know –"

"Let the kid speak, Matsuda," Yagami cut him off. "Kuroko-kun, can you tell me how you knew what was going to happen?"

Kuroko stared at Yagami for a moment, his eyes intense. Then he spoke. "I realized that the suspect was an out of work manga artist on the verge of being evicted from his apartment if he missed another payment, and realized that he intended to rob the convenience store to try to prevent that. So, I wanted to stop him."

"How could you possibly know that unless you were in league –"

"Kuroko-kun, please tell us how you knew this," Yagami said, cutting his partner off again.

"His hands gave him away as a manga artist," said Kuroko. "He had pressure calluses on his right hand, in the right places for someone who spends a lot of time drawing, and a scrap of screen tone stuck to his wrist."

"A bit of a giveaway," Yagami agreed. "But very observant of you to notice. And how did you know he was about to be evicted?"

"His eviction notice was sticking out of his back pocket. I saw it. I read the visible part of it. That's all," said Kuroko.

"And the gun?" Yagami asked. "Or rather, the fake gun?"

"The sticker was stuck to his shoe."

"What sticker?" asked Matsuda.

"The one that comes with artist replicas of weapons," Yagami answered him. "They hasten things along a little bit when they're checked by security at customs, or conventions, or anywhere else they might be sold. You should know this, Matsuda."

His partner colored, clearly embarrassed.

"And you noticed all that?" asked Kagami, a little amazed. "And you put it together . . . that's how you knew?"

"I didn't do anything wrong," said Kuroko.

"No, you didn't," agreed Yagami.

"Actually, yes you did," growled Kagami. "What the hell were you thinking, confronting someone twice your size? Again?! At least there was only one this time, but still, do you have no self preservation at all?"

"I couldn't stand by and do nothing. That would have been wrong," said Kuroko.

Kagami grimaced. "That doesn't mean it's alright to confront a full grown man twice your size! Don't do that again!"

"I have the feeling you're the kind of person this is going to happen to again, Kuroko-kun," said Yagami.

Kagami glared at the detective. "Don't encourage him!"

Yagami gave Kagami an amused look, then handed a business card to Kuroko, who took it, his expression still blank, but Kagami sensed he was confused. Yagami must have sensed so too, because he explained, "In case you notice anything else."

* * *

(this fic is set in the same universe as the "Kuroko no Sherlock" oneshot, which is Chapter 3 of my oneshot collection fic, "A Different Side of Me,"  
so if you liked this, please check that out too)

(Detective Yagami Light and Detective Matsuda have been borrowed from Death Note because they're convenient premade characters, and I fail at OCs. No Death Notes or incarnations of Kira will be appearing in this fic.)

Please review!


	2. The Pickpocket Problem

The Pickpocket Problem

Summary: The rest of Seirin learns about Kuroko's abilities, and gets on board with the crimebusting.

* * *

Kuroko wasn't sure when he first started to know things that other people didn't. Maybe he'd always been like that. He just hadn't known that other people weren't on the same page as him until he was in middle school. It wasn't like he talked with people that much. Until Ogiwara-kun, he hadn't had a single friend in elementary school.

Watching other people had always been his hobby. They never felt his envious stare as they walked home with their friends, or rushed off to work, or left work and loitered, delaying the time until they were reunited with their families.

His gift had to be an evolved form of his hobby, Kuroko theorized, when he realized that other people couldn't do what he could do, couldn't look at someone and read their life from the clues they so obviously left on their persons. Bookkeepers, marketing executives, divorce attorneys, chefs . . . everyone wore their jobs on their sleeves. Not literally. At least not in most cases. But they might as well have, for as obvious as it all was to Kuroko.

Eventually, he could read not only them, but their families as well, from the NEET who was living off his parents, to the harried mother of at least three children, rushing off to get the shopping done. And then he learned to read their secrets. The adulterers were so careless with their rings. The alcoholics always had scratches on their phones around the power connections.

Some days he'd sit in a subway station for hours, just watching people come and go. It wasn't lonely, he told himself. How could he be lonely when he knew so many people and their secrets?

Then, one day, Kuroko realized he not only knew who and what people were, but also what they were going to do. Not always, he wasn't psychic, and people didn't always telegraph their intentions, but sometimes he'd look at someone, and realize that he knew what they were about to do. Whenever that happened and he got that feeling, it turned out that he was always right.

He saw small things that he didn't think were right, like shop liftings, drug deals, and pick pocketing, but for years, he left it alone. They didn't overly concern him. And no one who he cared about was really getting hurt.

Then his middle school team won their third consecutive championship, and Kuroko learned just what silence and inaction could cost. And he realized, thanks to his ex-captain, that if he didn't speak up or do something when he saw people who meant very little or nothing to him being hurt, he didn't really have a right to say anything when the people he did care about ended up hurt by the exact same things.

And so Kuroko decided never to make that mistake again.

* * *

The first time he tried to act on his newfound resolve, he almost got beaten up by five punks on a Kawagawa streetball court. If Kagami and Kise hadn't intervened, that's probably what would have happened. Kuroko hadn't stopped to think about consequences when he stepped in, but if he had, he would have realized that more likely than not, at least one of those two would intervene.

There was a time when he would have been certain Kise would have jumped in to defend him. But now he wasn't certain anymore. He couldn't be certain when it came to Kise, because once he'd thought all his friends would always be there for each other, but then he'd ended up alone.

Kagami, Kuroko didn't know as well. But he was learning more about him. And what he learned, he liked. Kagami was very passionate, and had strong opinions about what was right and wrong as well. He effortlessly brushed aside the doubts that Kise had made Kuroko feel about their friendship, with gruff logic. Despite what Kise believed, Kuroko was coming to feel like he could count on Kagami, off the court as well as on.

The next time Kuroko knew something was going to happen and decided to do something about it, he did try to turn to Kagami for help first. But as he feared, Kagami thought that he was nuts for singling out what to him must have been a random person, saying that he was going to rob the convenience store, and asking him to go punch him in the face.

Kuroko ended up having to make a move on his own. It could have gone better. Getting pistol whipped by the fake gun was the second worst of the seven scenarios Kuroko felt were likely to occur. (And this time he had thought to calculate the consequences) But the second he went down, Kagami charged in, furious and out for blood.

It was a good feeling, knowing someone wanted to protect him.

* * *

The next time Kuroko realized something was about to happen, that he could stop, worked out better.

"Kagami-kun," he said, letting a little bit of urgency into his voice, "please listen."

The rest of Seirin was there too, but Kagami was the only one who might believe Kuroko when he told them what was about to happen. The others, Kuroko had realized, would need to be shown that Kuroko really could predict these things before they would help him.

His tone caught everyone's attention, but only Kagami could have recognized it for what it was.

"What do you need?" he demanded, moving closer to Kuroko and looking around them, as though trying to spot any threats.

"That woman with the green hair is about to pick pocket the business man buying a pretzel. The one in the grey suit. She'll strike when he puts his wallet back in his pocket."

"I'm on it," said Kagami, immediately taking off.

"Wait, what?" asked Hyuuga.

"Kagami-kun, where are you going? Kuroko-kun, you can't possibly know that," Riko protested.

"He knows things," Kagami called back.

All the rest of the team looked back and forth between them, clearly unsure about what to think. Kuroko kept his eyes on the scene that was about to unfold, and when it happened, most of the others had fixed their eyes on it as well. The grey suited businessman put his wallet back into his back pocket. The green haired pick pocket relieved him of it, easy as pie.

Then Kagami grabbed her wrist before she could make the wallet vanish.

"Give the man back his wallet, lady."

"I'm not – I didn't – let go of me!" the woman stuttered.

"Then let go of that man's wallet!" said Kagami.

"Hey, that's my wallet!" said the businessman, turning around and seeing what the commotion was about.

"If she gets away from Kagami-kun, she's going to try to make a getaway down the stairs," Kuroko predicted. "And she is going to get away from Kagami-kun."

He was surprised but pleased when Mitobe immediately began moving to block off the stairs, with Koganei right behind him. Right as the green haired woman dropped the wallet and pulled away from Kagami with all her might. Kagami didn't have the resolve to hold onto a scared woman, even if she was a petty thief. He didn't deliberately let her go, but he didn't go out of his way to hold her either.

A police officer was running toward them now, but he wouldn't have made it in time to get the woman before she rushed down the stairs. Mitobe barely made it in time to block off her retreat. But he did make it. She skidded to a stop right in front of him when he held his arms out like he was blocking her in a basketball game. She turned to go a different way, but Koganei was there, blocking her as well.

Then the officer reached them. The woman got handcuffed. Statements got taken. Kuroko did what he did best then, and disappeared. He hadn't done anything. He didn't want to have to talk to people because of that.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, he had to face his team again. He was a little worried about how they would react, but they didn't seem too upset at his desertion. Or his uncanny ability to predict criminal behavior.

"There was a Detective Yagami asking about you, Kuroko-kun," said Riko, looking at him with shrewd eyes.

Kuroko looked at Kagami.

"He heard my name mentioned on the police scanner, so he stopped by," said Kagami. "It wasn't his case. He just wanted to see if you were involved too."

"Did you tell him I was?"

"I didn't have to."

"Why did you disappear, Kuroko?" asked Koganei. "Don't you want people to know you're a hero?"

"I'm not a hero," said Kuroko. "I didn't do anything."

"You put the play into motion," said Izuki. "Without you, that woman would have gotten away with the guy's wallet."

"And that manga artist turned robber would of succeeded in robbing that convenience store," said Kagami. (The whole team had been briefed on that incident back when it happened. Kuroko's head injury had to be explained to the coach and captain.)

Those little bits of good weren't nearly enough to balance out all the bad that had happened when Kuroko stood by and did nothing. But they were a start. And this time Kuroko was with people who would listen to him when he spoke up about what he thought was wrong. So maybe, just maybe, he could eventually tip the scales. Maybe someday he could be a hero.

* * *

Next chapter will be the incident mentioned in the Kuroko no Sherlock oneshot, where Kuroko almost voluntarily swallows poison, or at least a pill that has a 50 percent chance of being poison. And the boatload of psychological issues he's been carrying around since middle school really start to rear their heads. WARNING: Next chapter will be heavily based off the plot of Sherlock Season 1 Episode 1, and the Sherlock Pilot. There will be spoilers.

Please review!


	3. A Study In Shadows

A Study in Shadows

* * *

Summary: Kuroko investigates a string of serial suicides and finds himself on the trail of a serial killer. (This chapter is the incident mentioned in the Kuroko no Sherlock oneshot)

Spoiler Warning: Spoilers for the BBC's Sherlock, Episode 1 and the Unaired Pilot Episode. The following plot is heavily based off of these. No copyright infringement intended.

* * *

Suicides were a sore point for Kuroko.

He could understand desperation. He knew what it was like to watch everything you cared about fall apart. And he recognized that while he had suffered hardships, there were people out there who had been through much, much worse.

But he didn't believe in giving up.

That was why the string of serial suicides caught his attention.

He thought the first one sounded strange – a man, seemingly happy, with no apparent problems, no financial problems, and a loving family, suddenly taking his own life. In a place where he had no reason to be. With poison.

Japan's suicide rate was so high that no one else gave it too much thought, but something about it bothered Kuroko.

When he heard about the suicide of the Seihou benchwarmer, a chill went down his spine. Guilt was like an old friend to him by now, but this was different. This time it didn't connect. The guy was a benchwarmer who hadn't even played in the match Seirin beat them in. And he was a second year. He would have had another shot against them next year. And his other teammates said that he hadn't seemed that crushed after the match. He'd stayed to watch Seirin's battle with Shuutoku, and even cheered Seirin on.

Then he declined to go out to eat with the team after the match, saying he had a test to study for. Then he went to an abandoned office building nowhere near the Seihou dorms or any of his normal hangouts, and killed himself. With the same poison that the businessman from a week ago had.

Something's wrong here. A little voice kept nagging Kuroko about it and wouldn't leave him alone. After he found out about that second suicide, literally, not an hour passed that he didn't think about them, for the next forty-eight hours. His victory over Midorima suddenly meant nothing in the face of this wrongness, and the realization that he was the only one who had noticed this, and so he was the only one who could fix this, but he didn't know how.

He ended up going to Detective Yagami who was surprised to see him, and surprisingly understanding when Kuroko explained what he'd found out, but in the end, as helpless as Kuroko was.

"I agree, something strange is afoot," said Yagami after looking over the file of newspaper clippings Kuroko had comprised. "But I don't know what this is either. There's not enough to connect the victims for me to even make any guesses."

"But you agree something is wrong?" asked Kuroko. "You'll try to find out what?"

"I will."

* * *

The loss to Touo was a crippling blow to all of Seirin's moral. The third serial suicide was the icing on the cake to Kuroko. Even stopping another pick pocketing, with Hyuuga's and Izuki's help couldn't make Kuroko feel any better. So he went back to Detective Yagami Light with an odd request.

"You want to see the next crime scene?" Light asked with only a slight amount of incredulity in his voice.

"Yes," said Kuroko. "I want to see it with my own eyes. I can only notice so much when all I have to go on are newspaper articles."

"I take it you saw the press conference I gave?" asked Light. "So you know I've taken over the cases."

"Yes."

"Even so, this will be an extremely unusual situation. Civilians aren't supposed to be allowed on crime scenes. Let alone children."

Kuroko started to protest that he wasn't a child. Light cut him off.

"However, when said child has more awareness and potential as a detective than any real detective I know, save for myself, I acknowledge that the situation changes." Light smiled. "When the rules that are meant to protect people impede the ones who can protect them from doing their jobs, I think that they can be bent. Don't you, Kuroko-kun?"

"I think that people should do what's right," Kuroko answered.

Light smiled. "Give me your cell phone's number. If I can, I'll call you when we find the next scene."

* * *

Kagami glanced sharply at his friend as Kuroko's cell phone began ringing. He'd only barely known Kuroko even had a cell phone and had never heard it ring before. Kuroko himself seemed surprised, but when he looked at the screen and saw who was calling, his expression changed to his crimebusting face. Kagami felt his adrenaline spike despite his misery of not being able to participate during practice, and of knowing that Seirin had been eliminated from Interhigh, even though they had one more match tomorrow.

"What's wrong?" he demanded.

Kuroko motioned for him to wait, then answered his phone. He kept the conversation brief, only agreeing to something before hanging up and standing. "I'm going to a crime scene. I'll see you tomorrow Kagami-kun."

"Wait. You're going where?" demanded Kagami.

"To a crime scene. Detective Yagami agreed to let me take a look at it."

Kagami gawked at him. "You're helping the police with investigations now?"

"This is my first one. I requested it and Detective Yagami agreed," said Kuroko.

"I'm coming with you," said Kagami.

"But –"

"I don't care if they don't let me go in with you, I'm still going to be there," said Kagami.

Kuroko looked at him uncomprehending. "Why?"

Because I just know you're going to get in trouble if I'm not there with you," said Kagami. "You'll do something stupid, like confront a freaking murder suspect alone, unarmed, the same way you confront wannabe gangsters and convenience store robbers with guns."

"Fake guns. And there will be plenty of police officers there at the scene," said Kuroko.

"If it's you, I doubt that will make any difference. You'll find trouble."

* * *

To Kagami's surprise, he was let into the crime scene without any mishaps. Slightly later, he found out that was because people had assumed he was Kuroko, and had completely overlooked Kuroko himself. Detective Yagami, or Light, as he'd asked them to call him, seemed amused by that, and didn't mind his presence, so Kagami stood back and tried not to look at the dead body on the floor. Not that he could help that much if he wanted to keep an eye on Kuroko. The little phantom knelt beside the corpse like he wasn't phased by it in the least, checking under the dead woman's collar, examining her jewelry and umbrella, studying her fingernails, then looking around the room.

"Where's her case?" he asked finally.

"Case?"

"Her suitcase," said Kuroko.

"She didn't have one," said Light.

"What?" Kuroko looked like he didn't believe him.

"She didn't have a suitcase."

Kuroko frowned and took out his phone. He started tapping madly on it, and Kagami had no idea what he was doing. "She had to have a suitcase."

"Why?" Kagami had to ask.

"Because of the mud splatters on the back of her calves," said Kuroko. "Look at the pattern."

"I'd rather not," said Kagami.

"You only get that pattern from rolling a suitcase behind you. A small one by the looks of this splatter. So where's her case? It must be here," said Kuroko, looking up from his phone and looking around the room again, like he might have missed it, or like it might appear out of nowhere.

"Maybe she took it home," suggested Detective Matsuda, Light's less intelligent partner.

"No. She didn't take it home or leave it at a motel." Kuroko hurried out of the room and into the hall. "Excuse me! Did anyone see a pink suitcase? Anyone?"

"Kuroko-kun," said Light. "What do –"

"Why do you think her suitcase is going to be pink?" Matsuda cut him off with the clearly more important question.

Kuroko was already halfway down the stairs. "Isn't it obvious, Detective Matsuda?"

"Why would it be obvious?"

"Pink coat. Pink heels. Pink nail polish, pink lipstick. All the same alarming color of pink. The suitcase will be the same. I'm going to go find it."

"What? Kuroko!" Kagami shouted, but Kuroko was already gone.

"Well, that wasn't quite what I expected," Light admitted.

Kagami tried to hurry after Kuroko, but his injured legs slowed him down, and Kuroko had too big of a head start. Not to mention Kuroko had that uncanny knack for disappearing even when he was in plain sight. By the time Kagami made it to the door, Kuroko had completely vanished.

He took out his phone and debated calling someone. He wasn't sure really who to call, or what to say to them. "Hey, Midorima, Kuroko's going to visit crime scenes now. Crime scenes with actual dead bodies in them. Great job getting him addicted to stopping crimes back in Teiko." Well, that would be interesting, but probably not worth the migraine he'd get from it. Calling Kise was out because he was far too annoying, and Aomine was way too much of a dick. Coach and Captain were going to kill him for losing Kuroko . . . but he decided he'd better face that music sooner than later.

He did try calling Kuroko, but the little brat didn't answer, which just figured. Kagami did have some comfort from the fact that Kuroko was only looking for a suitcase right now. Not the actual murderer. If there was a murderer. These serial suicides weirded him out and he wasn't afraid to admit it.

* * *

Right as he got home, Kagami got a text from Kuroko.

_221 B Byakku Street. Come at once if convenient._

That was Kuroko's home address, Kagami was pretty sure. He'd never been to Kuroko's flat, but he had a general idea where it must be, since he and Kuroko lived pretty close to each other.

Before Kagami could send a text back calling Kuroko an idiot, another text arrived.

_If inconvenient, please come anyway._

"You little . . ."

_Could be dangerous._ Was the third and final text, which prompted Kagami to run back up to his apartment and get a certain souvieneer he'd brought back from America.

I'm coming, idiot. Stay alive until I get there! Kagami texted back. He ran all the way to Byakku street, as fast as his aching legs would allow. Coach was going to kill him when she got a look at his muscles tomorrow, he was sure, but he could live with that. If something happened to Kuroko, not so much.

But, and Kagami wasn't sure whether to be relieved or annoyed when he found this out, Kuroko turned out to be perfectly fine when he arrived. He was seated cross-legged on the floor, staring at an extremely ugly little pink suit case, the contents of which, he's spread out around himself.

"What are you doing?" demanded Kagami.

"What?"

"I asked what are you doing?"

"Thinking," said Kuroko.

Kagami looked at the case then back at Kuroko. "Did you really find that pink woman's suitcase?"

"Yes. It was in a dumpster, only half a block away. The killer didn't make it too far before realizing it was still in his car."

"Killer?" asked Kagami.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kuroko looked at Kagami like he expected an answer and Kagami realized this was one of those times when Kuroko couldn't tell whether or not other people saw things the same way he did. He wasn't trying to be arrogant. But that didn't make it any less annoying.

"There's nothing obvious about this at all."

"Oh. Sorry.' Kuroko paused then asked, "Do you want me to explain it?"

"Yes! Start with why you ran out on Light like that!"

"I told him, to find the suitcase." Kuroko looked a bit bewildered.

"Why?"

"Because I knew the killer wouldn't make it very far before realizing he still had it. It's a bit of an eyesore. It's also extremely conspicuous, so I knew he'd want to get rid of it first chance he could. I searched the dumpsters and trash bins around the building where the crime scene was. It took me less than half an hour to find it," said Kuroko.

"Shouldn't you, I don't know, turn it over to the police?"

"I will. But I found it. I wanted the first look at the woman's phone."

"What phone?" asked Kagami.

"That's what I've been wondering. Oh, that reminds me, I need you to send a text for me."

"What? You can't use your own phone to send it?" asked Kagami.

"No. See the phone number on the tag here?" asked Kuroko. "Please send this text there –"

"Hang on," said Kagami, hurrying to get his phone on and enter the number he needed to text too. "Alright, go ahead."

"Text this exactly, please. 'What happened at Hamizan Gardens? I must have blacked out. Maji Burger on Byakku Street. Please come.'"

Kagami looked at his shadow in alarm. "You blacked out?"

"No."

"But you just said –"

"I lied. I know lying is bad, but we're only lying to a murderer, so it's alright."

Kagami had just sent the text as Kuroko finished saying this. "What? Do you mean – Kuroko, did I just text a murderer?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Kagami's phone started ringing.

"Don't answer that," Kuroko said quickly.

"Kuroko, what the hell is going on?" demanded Kagami.

Kuroko stood up. "I'll explain on the way."

* * *

It turned out that when he slowed down and explained things for other people Kuroko could do a good job at it. He explained to Kagami how he'd figured the murdered woman must have a phone because she didn't have a laptop. He'd deduced that she had to have brought one or the other on this trip with her, because she was a serial adulterer, something he'd realized from the fact that all of her jewelry was clean except for her wedding ring, which was only polished on the inside, meaning she regularly removed it. His explanation for how he knew she was out of town was kind of convoluted and involved weather reports and the fact that the woman's umbrella was dry, but her coat was wet. Kagami didn't care too much about that so he zoned out until Kuroko got back to things that he could understand better, like how he guessed that the killer must still have the phone because it wasn't in the suitcase, or on the dead woman, and so likely, if the woman knew she was going to her death, she'd planted it somewhere in the killer's car, hoping it would lead the police to her murderer.

"You really think he's going to be dumb enough to show up at Maji Burger?" asked Kagami as they made their way there.

"No. I think he's genius enough to."

Kagami looked sideways at him. Then he remembered how the Generation of Miracles were all considered geniuses. And he decided that he and Kuroko were using different definitions of the word genius. The one Kuroko used obviously included being messed up in the head.

They went into Maji Burger, got their usual order, and sat down at their usual table.

"Don't stare out the window," Kuroko admonished when Kagami started to do just that.

"You're staring out the window," said Kagami, annoyed.

"But the killer won't see me staring out the window."

Kagami rolled his eyes. "Probably true. But how are you going to know him when you see him? You don't know who he is."

"No. But I know what he is."

"What?" asked Kagami.

"I see the connection now," said Kuroko. "I was blind not to before. Who else could abduct four unrelated people out of public places, with no struggle? If there'd been any connections between them other than their deaths, I would have thought that they all knew their murderer, but there was no overlap. Detective Yagami checked very carefully. It was so obvious. I feel like a fool."

"If you're a fool, I don't even want to think about what the rest of us are," said Kagami. "What are you talking about? Who is this guy?"

"Whose car do you get into without a second thought?" asked Kuroko. "Whose car does anyone get into without a second thought?"

"Their mom or dad's?"

"No," said Kuroko, and his voice actually had a little bit of frustration. "You don't have to pretend you haven't figured it out yet to make me feel better."

Kagami glared at him. "Who's pretending? God, you're annoying."

He went to take a drink of his soda, but found that it was empty. "I'm getting a refill. You, just . . . stay here and try not to be so annoying."

He was only gone for a minute. A freaking minute. No more than that. There wasn't even a line at the counter. It was more like thirty or forty seconds. But when he got back, Kuroko was gone.

Kagami stared at Kuroko's seat, expecting Kuroko to suddenly pop out of nowhere, like he did so often. But after several seconds, he realized Kuroko really was no longer there.

"Kuroko? Where –"

Kagami looked out the window just in time to see Kuroko slump to the ground, his back against a taxicab.

"What the –"

Kuroko was still slightly conscious. He tried to crawl away, but suddenly the cab driver was there, lifting him up and shoving him into the backseat.

"HEY!"

Kagami tore out of the restaurant, oblivious to the scene he'd made. His only thought was getting to his friend before it was too late.

The cab driver was already back in his seat when Kagami got outside. He was already pulling away. Desperately, Kagami ran after the car, ignoring the pain in his shins. He didn't care about slowing down his recovery, or what Coach was going to say when she saw him. He only cared about getting his shadow back. So he could kill Kuroko himself for pulling this crap!

But it was useless. He wasn't fast enough. Even uninjured, he wouldn't have been fast enough. The taxi disappeared into the Tokyo traffic, leaving nothing behind to show it had ever been there, spiriting his shadow away.

* * *

"Wakey, wakey."

Kuroko opened his eyes slowly and tried to take stock of his surroundings. Everything was slow, like he was in mud. Or some viscous liquid. But why? And who was this funny looking guy who –

Oh.

Kuroko remembered now. Confronting the cab driver turned serial killer. Alone. That had not been the best play he'd ever made. If he lived through this, Kagami was going to kill him.

"I hope you don't mind. I got your address off your student handbook," said the killer/cab driver. "Kuroko Tetsuya."

"This is my apartment," said Kuroko looking around.

"I figured, why not? I knew no one would be here. You wear your loneliness like a suit of armor. I knew you had no parents worth speaking of." The cabbie peered at him from behind a pair of ugly little glasses and leered. "So it's just you and me here."

Kuroko tried to stand. He ended up face planting on the floor.

"Careful," the cabbie said. "The drugs are still in your system."

"What did you give me?" asked Kuroko, remembering the syringe in his arm and the panic he'd felt as the world started to go dark.

"Just a little something to knock you out for a bit. You'll be dizzy for awhile if you try to walk, but in a minute, seated, you'll be able to think fine," the cabbie said. "Which is good. I want you on your best game."

"Game?" Absurdly, Kuroko thought he was talking about basketball for a minute. He couldn't think of any other game.

"Yes. A game between just you and me," said the cabbie.

"And . . . if I don't want to play?" asked Kuroko.

"You already are playing," said the cabbie. "Thinking you're so smart, trying to hunt me down."

"That's not a game," said Kuroko, trying to crawl . . . somewhere. He didn't know where yet. "That was the right thing to do."

The cabbie hauled him off the floor and into a chair at the table.

"The right thing? Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"No. I have no sense of humor." Kuroko flinched when the cabbie patted his face. "Stop."

"Do you think you can make me?" the cabbie asked. Kuroko tried in vane to bat his hand away. "You're weak as a kitten. I could do anything I wanted to you right now, you know. Anything at all."

He gave Kuroko a moment to let the implication sink in. Kuroko forced himself to show no emotion or signs of fear when it did.

"But don't worry," the cabbie said at last. "I'm only going to kill you. As long as you play nice. If you try anything funny, like screaming or shouting, well, I promise it won't go well for you."

Kuroko stared at him blankly.

"Now. Onto the game." The cabbie sat down in the chair opposite him and took out two clear glass bottles. In each one were several white pills with brown speckles on them. The cabbie put both bottles down on the table. "So, you want to know how I make them take the poison?"

He waited for Kuroko to say something. Kuroko just stared at him.

"Well," he said at last. "Here's how. See, there's a good bottle, and a bad bottle. In one bottle, there's the poison. In the other, placebo. Choose the good pill and you live. Choose the bad one and you die. And whichever one you don't take, I do."

"And you know which is which," Kuroko said.

"Of course I know," said the cabbie.

"But I don't."

The cabbie smirked. "It wouldn't be a game if you knew. See, you get to choose one. And if you choose right, you live."

Anger washed over Kuroko, giving him a bit more strength to fight against the drugs in his system. "That's not a game. It's chance."

"Not really," laughed the cabbie. "I've played four times. Yet I'm still alive. It's not chance, Kuroko-chan. It's chess."

The condescending honorific made Kuroko want to hit this man, more than the implicit threat on his life did.

"It's a game of chess with one move, and one survivor," the cabbie said. "And this right here . . . this is the move."

Then he picked up the bottle on his right and moved it across the table so that it was within easy reach for Kuroko.

"Did I just give you the placebo or the poison?" he asked. "You can choose either one."

Kuroko stared at the pills on the table, then lifted his gaze to the cabbie. "So that's how you've been doing it? That's how you killed all of them? You gave them a choice?"

"You've got to admit," the cabbie drawled. "For a serial killer, I'm pretty nice. Anyways, time's up. It's time for you to choose."

"And then?" asked Kuroko.

"And then," the cabbie said, "together we take our medicine."

And he smacked his lips together. "Let's play."

Kuroko gritted his teeth as he stared at the cabbie. This man . . . he didn't deserve to be called a man. This man was wrong in the worst kind of way. Kuroko had started down this path because he hadn't agreed with what the Generation of Miracles had done, but they would never do something so vile as this.

"Play what?" he demanded. "It's a fifty-fifty chance!"

"You're not playing the odds, Kuroko-chan," said the cabbie. "You're playing against me. Did I give you the good pill or the bad one? Is it a bluff? Or a double bluff? Or even a triple bluff? Or maybe even a quadruple bluff –"

"Stop screwing around! It's still chance!" said Kuroko angrily.

"I've beat four people in a row! It's not chance."

"Then it's luck!"

"No, it's genius!" said the cabbie. "It's all about how people think. And I know how they think. And how they think I think. I can see it all, like a map in my head. Everyone's so stupid. Especially you."

Kuroko glared. Then he swallowed his anger. "You chose people who weren't from Tokyo, or at least not the parts where you found them. Looking for people who didn't know where they were, so they wouldn't know you were taking them to the wrong places. You risked your life four times . . . to kill strangers. Oh. I see."

"See what?" the cabbie asked.

"You're dying."

The cabbie twitched in shock.

"And you don't have long," Kuroko realized.

"Aneurysm," the cabbie said, a dark look replacing his shocked one. He tapped the side of his skull. "Right here. Any breath could be my last."

"And you think that's an excuse for murdering four people?" demanded Kuroko.

"I've outlived four people," spat the cabbie.

"But you're not going to outlive five," said Kuroko.

"Oh no?"

"No," said Kuroko. "I'm not going to play your disgusting game."

"Then I'll choose for you and shove it down your throat."

"I'll fight back," said Kuroko.

"You're weak as a kitten from that shot I gave you."

"It doesn't matter. I never give up without a fight. Even with sedatives in my system, I'm a relatively healthy teenage athlete. You're an old man with an aneurysm. Are those odds that you want to play?"

"Well," said the cabbie, reaching into his jacket, "there's always this."

With that, he pulled out a gun.

Kuroko looked at it. "Is that supposed to scare me?"

"It would if you had a lick of sense, boy."

"Then go ahead," said Kuroko. "Shoot me."

The cabbie aimed the gun at him and pulled the trigger. A small flame appeared out of the barrel of the gun, or rather, the cigarette lighter that had been made to look like a gun.

"I've had enough of this," said Kuroko. He stood, very carefully, and took it as a good sign that he managed to keep his balance. "I'm calling the police."

"Seems I underestimated you, Kuroko-chan. Looks like you might be a genius yourself."

"I'm not," said Kuroko. "I just notice things."

"I saw that glare you gave me when I called you stupid. You know you're smart. You're just too modest to say so out loud. Well, is it really going to sit alright with you?"

"What?"

"Never knowing if you could have beaten me?" asked the cabbie. "Will you be alright never knowing if you were really smarter than me or not?"

"I am smarter than you. I'm smart enough to know nothing good comes of hurting other people. You're not."

"Well, just out of curiosity, which one would you have picked?" asked the cabbie. "Come on. Humor me. If you do, I promise I'll sit here like a good boy and let the police come arrest me."

Kuroko stared at him, surprised . . . because everything he could read about whether a person was lying or not said that he was telling the truth now.

So, wordlessly, Kuroko reached across the table and lifted the bottle that the cabbie had left closer to himself.

"Oh, interesting," said the cabbie. He reached for the other bottle and took a pill out of it. "Want to see if you were right?"

"No."

"You're lying, Kuroko-chan," said the cabbie. "Remember, I know how people think. You want to try it out. You want to prove that you were right. So, how about it?"

"No," said Kuroko.

"What's wrong? Worried you're stupid after all?"

"I'm not stupid," said Kuroko.

"Then prove it."

There were a million reasons not to, but somehow, Kuroko found his hands twisting off the bottle cap, and removing one pill from the bottle.

He held up the pill to his eye level, inspecting it, still not sure. But the cabbie's eyes were lit up like he'd already won. And Kuroko's hands were shaking slightly for reasons he didn't understand. He knew this was a bad idea. He knew that this was stupid. But . . .

"Shall we?" asked the cabbie.

Kuroko began to lower his hand.

BANG!

The pill slipped out of Kuroko's fingers as the cabbie fell onto the table, then off it, onto the ground. Kuroko gawked down at the bullet hole in his back, then stared at the matching bullet hole in his window, for once not bothering to guard his expression. Had anyone been watching, his surprise would have been plain for them to see.

* * *

"What the hell were you thinking, Kuroko? Pulling shit like that! I oughta kill you myself!" shouted Kagami.

"Where is it?" Kuroko asked urgently, keeping his voice low.

"What?"

"You know what," said Kuroko. He dropped his voice to a whisper. "What did you do with the gun?"

A little bit of Kagami's anger was replaced with surprise, but then he answered, also in a low voice, "Threw it in the river."

"We need to get the powder burns off your hands, just in case. I don't think Detective Yagami will look your way when trying to find a suspect, but there's no point in taking chances."

"Don't talk to me about taking chances," hissed Kagami. "Not after all this shit you pulled! I thought we came to an understanding about you approaching suspects alone! And then . . . tell me you weren't really going to swallow that pill!"

"I wasn't going to."

"You were!"

"I wasn't."

"I saw that look on your face, you idiot! You were definitely going to!"

Kuroko looked at the ground. "I don't know if I was going to or not."

Kagami gave him a shake. "Idiot."

"I'm sorry."

"You should be. Never do that again, Kuroko! Your life is worth too much to waste in a pissing contest with some self proclaimed genius!"

"But I did choose the right one."

"You don't know that," growled Kagami. "Matsuda told me the pills got mixed up when the cabbie fell on the table."

"I know. I chose the right one."

"You don't know! Now shut up, or I'm going to hit you!"

They were walking. Kuroko wasn't sure where. Until he took a second to think about it. Figuring out how other people thought suddenly seemed to be getting easier. "We're going to your apartment."

"Yeah. You can't sleep at a crime scene."

"Thank you, Kagami-kun . . . Are you alright?"

"Me?" Kagami snorted. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You did just kill a man," said Kuroko softly.

Kagami made a disgusted noise. "I'm not going to lose any sleep over that."

"Kagami-kun."

"I grew up in a state with capital punishment. I support it. And if it was a choice between him and you, that's no choice at all. The only thing that I'm going to lose sleep over is how close you came to getting your idiot self killed," growled Kagami.

"I'm sorry."

"Not as sorry as you're going to be. Coach, Captain, and the rest of the team are on their way to my place as we speak. Coach said something about the Boston Crab hold when I filled her in on everything that happened."

Kuroko paled.

But despite the impending threat of his coach, and the pain he knew he was going to go through, he couldn't help but feel it was overshadowed by another kind of dread.

That thrill he'd felt holding that pill tonight scared him. The thrill of all the danger he'd been in, to be honest. He'd never felt more alive than when he was playing a game with his life as the stakes.

Maybe it was because for the first time in a long time, all the guilt for his past inaction had been pushed away. Or maybe it was something else. Some deep seated addiction to danger that he'd never known he had before, since he'd never been in real danger before. But whatever it was, he already knew he'd be feeling it again.

He had no intentions of stopping this thing he'd started.

Kuroko just hoped Kagami-kun would be there next time too, to save him from himself.

* * *

Please review!


	4. Extra Scenes For A Study In Shadows

A Study In Shadows: Extra Scenes

Summary: By request, 2 scenes that weren't detailed on in A Study In Shadows, and 1 scene with a little more aftermath.

* * *

_1: Kuroko getting drugged_

It happened only seconds after Kagami stepped away. The cab pulled up. The empty cab. Its driver parked the taxi against the curb. Then he put on his Out of Service light.

Got you, thought Kuroko, already halfway to the door.

The summer heat hit him as soon as he stepped outside. And with it, a realization. Kagami-kun was not going to be happy. What Kuroko was doing right now, that was going against everything Kagami had yelled at him about since . . . since Kuroko started speaking out against the things he thought were wrong.

And if Kagami had gotten so mad at him just for confronting street punks and a convenience store robber with a fake gun, he would be beyond furious at Kuroko for trying to have a face to face with a serial killer.

That almost made Kuroko turn back. Kagami was important to him. He didn't want to deliberately make him angry.

But Kuroko's feet kept moving forward, and he didn't quite know why. Maybe it was because he loathed this cabbie much more than he feared Kagami's anger. He knew Kagami would never hurt him. But this cabbie was a murderer who'd killed four people, and gotten away with it. Kuroko couldn't let that be.

Predictably, the cabbie didn't even notice Kuroko, not even when Kuroko was standing right outside his window. It was only when Kuroko rapped on the glass that the cabbie saw he was there. He jumped, then looked sharply at Kuroko. His expression wasn't like a normal person who had been startled by Kuroko. He was much more on edge. Confirming what Kuroko had already known. This man was the murderer he was looking for. He'd been watching out for the pink woman, wondering if somehow she'd survived his poison.

"I'm not in service," said the cabbie, after rolling his window down.

Kuroko stared past him, into the car, looking for the object he knew must be there. He noticed it almost immediately. Its color was an eyesore and made it stand out.

Kuroko stepped back, took out his own cell phone and dialed the number on the pink lady's luggage tag. Inside the cab her pink phone began to ring. He watched as the cabbie looked around sharply, no doubt trying to see the pink lady. Then, almost hesitantly, he answered the call.

"How do you make them take the poison?" asked Kuroko.

The cabbie's mouth opened and closed in disbelief before he asked, in a voice that sounded _scared,_ "What?"

Anger flooded through Kuroko. Fury, rage, burning hate so intense it actually made him see red. What right did this monster have to sound scared after taking four lives, and devastating four families? It was like every bit of negative emotion Kuroko hadn't been able to fully feel or express for the Generation of Miracles, back when they were hurting people, even his other friends, was suddenly manifesting now, because the next thing Kuroko knew, he had reached through the open window of the cab and grabbed the driver's collar.

"Stop screwing around. I said how do you make them take the poison?" demanded Kuroko. He didn't shout it. But his tone was more vicious than any he'd ever used.

"Whoa! Who are you?" asked the cabbie. He almost sounded like he was panicking. Good.

"I'm a shadow," Kuroko responded.

The cabbie snorted. "Do you like drugs, little shadow?"

The question threw Kuroko. "What?"

Then it hit him, like a sledgehammer. His vision blurred and started going dark. His knees buckled and Kuroko found himself on the ground. A slight sting came from the syringe in his arm. His fall had jostled it.

This is not good, Kuroko realized. This was one of the outcomes Kagami-kun must have been afraid of.

Kagami-kun . . .

Kuroko looked up as he tried to drunkenly crawl away. Through the window of Maji Burger, to his and Kagami's usual table. Kagami was staring out in horror. His drink cup was falling from his hand to the floor and he was tearing out of the restaurant.

Hands grabbed Kuroko and pulled him off the sidewalk. He tried to struggle but all his limbs were too heavy and darkness was falling too fast. Kuroko was unable to stop the cab driver from shoving him into the back seat and slamming the door behind him.

But Kuroko wasn't afraid.

Kagami-kun was coming for him.

* * *

_2: Kagami shooting the cabbie_

Shit.

How did it come to this? Kagami wondered as he watched in horror as Kuroko raised the pill, the poison, to his eye level and stared at it with an expression Kagami had never seen before.

That expression scared him, because it was like the one he wore on the basketball court, but completely different at the very same time. When Kuroko was on the court, he had an air of stability around him. Like he was a pillar supporting the team, despite his small stature and unorthodox ways. But there was no stability about him now. And this expression was different, like Kuroko needed an anchor, because he was slipping out of control.

How did it come to this? Who had messed Kuroko up so badly that he did this kind of thing?

Kagami had his suspicions. Especially since this seemed to be a new thing. Kise had been as shocked as Kagami when Kuroko confronted those punks on the streetball court. So that probably meant Kuroko hadn't always done things like this.

Things like throwing himself headfirst into danger, all in the name of doing what he thought was right.

It was like someone had made him think looking the other way was an unforgivable sin.

And who did Kuroko have in his life who could put a thought like that in his head?

Gee I wonder.

Kagami gripped his gun, a souvineer smuggled home from America, with both hands, for better control. He needed as much stability as he could get for this shot. It was a hard shot. His hands couldn't shake at all it he wanted to make it.

A small part of this was his fault.

He'd managed to chase down the cab on foot, somehow. Mostly. He lost it near the end. But by then he was so close to Kuroko's apartment that he just had a feeling. It could have been a coincidence that the cabbie had taken a route so close to Kuroko's place. But Kagami was desperate and grasping at straws. A minute later, when he'd arrived and saw that cab there, he bolted right up the stairs to Kuroko's apartment. Only to realize that he was in the wrong freaking building of the apartment complex.

Which was how he found himself staring at his partner, through two windows with a small courtyard between them.

Kuroko started to lower the pill to his mouth and Kagami's heart rate started picking up, like it would in a game as he lined up his shot.

And pulled the trigger.

BANG!

A hole appeared in the cabbie's chest and Kagami only had a second to see it before the dead man's body was falling. And Kagami saw with relief that the pill had fallen out of Kuroko's hand too, and he'd jumped back and was wearing an expression for once. Unadulterated shock.

The little bastard didn't even look scared. Just surprised.

"Idiot," whispered Kagami, lowering his gun and hurrying away from the window. He was satisfied that Kuroko was safe. Whatever threat the cabbie had been using to make Kuroko take the poison was gone since the cabbie himself was gone. And maybe Kagami should have felt bad about how he'd just killed the bastard. But oddly, he didn't.

Maybe guilt would come later.

Probably not. It had never come that time in America, when Kagami broke the arm of a bully who'd beaten up and terrorized several of his classmates. Yes, killing someone was a whole lot more extreme, but Kagami didn't care. If there was a choice between his shadow and that low life piece of shit, there was no choice at all. There was only Kuroko.

* * *

_3: Seihou thanking Kuroko_

"Kuroko Tetsuya! Hey, Kuroko Tetsuya!"

Kuroko turned at the sound of his name. It was rare for anyone to call out to him at all, and even rarer for him not to recognize the voice.

Were he anyone else, he would have probably showed a surprised expression at the sight before him. The regulars of Seihou must have been camping out in front of Seirin waiting for him, because they were all there. Tsugawa, in the lead, was holding a newspaper and suddenly waving it in his face.

"Kuroko Tetsuya! Explain this for us, will you?"

Kuroko took it and looked at it uncomprehendingly. The paper had been rearranged so that the sports section was at the front . . . but he didn't see anything relevant about any of the articles.

"You're upset about our elimination from Interhigh," he deduced from the available information.

"What? No, I'm talking about – oh. Sorry, wrong page," said Tsugawa, who quickly rearranged the paper. "I was reading the sports section while we waited and . . . ah, here. This. Explain it. Now, please!"

"Tsugawa, be polite," their captain ordered, clamping a hand on Tsugawa's bald head.

Kuroko looked at the newspaper's front story and saw that it wasn't today's newspaper. It was the one that had come out last Saturday morning. Kuroko had picked up a copy just to see what it said, the evening of the day it came out, after Seirin had lost its third match in the Interhigh bracket they'd been in, and after they'd finally gotten away from the police who had a million and one questions about the kidnapping they'd stopped. But that was another story. Another halted crime.

"I'm sorry, but what did you want me to explain?" asked Kuroko.

"How about what you're doing in the picture on the front page?" said Tsugawa impatiently.

"You saw that?" Again, Kuroko was surprised. Detective Yagami was front and center in that picture. Kuroko was barely visible amongst the police cars with their bright blue lights, and all the officers on the scene. Just a shadow at the edge of the photo, sitting on the stoop of the ambulance, waiting for the officers present to give up on getting his parents on the phone and let him leave already.

"I told you I'd remember you, didn't I?" demanded Tsugawa. "Obviously I was going to see this article! It was about the bastard who killed my sempai getting caught!"

"More or less," said Kuroko.

"What?"

"Well," said Kuroko, "he wasn't actually caught."

"Caught, killed, I don't care as long as he was made to pay for it," growled Tsugawa. "But that doesn't explain why you're in the picture? Like I said, I told you I'd remember you! And obviously I was going to see that article! So when I saw you in the picture, I recognized you! Why were you there that night? What happened?"

"What Tsugawa is trying to ask," said their captain, Iwamura, "Is we'd like to know if you're the unnamed teenage civilian mentioned in the article. The one who was instrumental to that bastard being stopped."

It occurred to Kuroko that maybe he should lie. He was already getting far too much attention for . . . well, everything. Detective Yagami had promised not to give his name to the press, so that was something. But a lot of people knew what Kuroko was getting up to anyway. It had been very unfortunate that Touo had been there when Seirin stopped that bastard who was kidnapping that little girl. They'd learned far more than Kuroko would have liked for them to learn. He'd have preferred to limit the number of people who knew about his . . . extracurricular activities just to Seirin, and to leave their basketball rivals and his ex-teammates from the Generation of Miracles out of it completely.

But on the other hand, it had been one of Seihou's benchwarmers who'd been one of the serial killer's victims. It was more than understandable that they wanted to know everything about what happened. Had it been someone from Seirin who'd been murdered, or even someone from his old team at Teikou, Kuroko would have torn the world apart to find the truth.

"I was the one who caught him," said Kuroko, not sure if they would believe him, but deciding to be honest anyway. "More or less. He was in my apartment when he was killed."

Tsugawa laughed. Happily. Then he slung an arm around Kuroko. "I knew it!"

Kuroko shifted uncomfortably at the physical contact. He barely knew Tsugawa. But he guessed it wasn't so bad. If Tsugawa liked you, he seemed like he could be a good friend.

"I wasn't the one who killed him."

"Yeah. We figured that since you're not in jail," said Kasuga.

"And since you don't really seem like the kind of person to really try to kill someone," said Tsugawa, dragging him down the path.

Kuroko stumbled, but not because of Tsugawa. Without Tsugawa, he probably would have fallen. No, he stumbled because he just realized something.

In a matter of speaking, he had tried to kill someone. If Kagami hadn't shot the cabbie before Kuroko swallowed one of the pills, then the cabbie would have swallowed the other. And Kuroko was 100 percent convinced that that the pill in his own hand had been the placebo. So . . . that left the poisoned pill in the cabbie's hand. Taking the placebo meant poisoning the cabbie. And Kuroko had been right on the verge of doing just that.

Until right then, Kuroko hadn't realized that he had actually tried, and nearly succeeded, in killing someone.

"Come on. We're taking you to dinner."

Kuroko snapped back to the present. "What? Why?"

"Why do you think? Because you helped stop the guy who killed our teammate," said Kasuga, reaching down to ruffle Kuroko's hair, like he was a lot more familiar with Kuroko than he or any of Seihou actually was.

"But –"

"My dad owns a sushi restaurant," said Tsugawa, overruling Kuroko's protests. "It's our team's usual hangout. Come with us, Kuroko Tetsuya!"

"But –"

"Come with us! Come with us!"

Tsugawa's chanting strongly reminded Kuroko of Kise, and how sometimes it was easier just to give in and let him have his way than to keep resisting.

"Alright."

"Huh? Seriously?" Tsugawa grinned. "Alright! I thought I'd have to pester you for another five minutes, at least."

Kuroko had too much to think about right now to argue at the same time. Namely, he had to think about how he felt, realizing that he'd almost murdered someone.

* * *

Thank you for all the reviews and messages so far! They're all appreciated!

I will be trying to write some original cases for Kuroko and Kagami to solve (since that's been requested alot) instead of just rehashing the BBC Sherlock's plots. I'll be borrowing some elements from the BBC Sherlock, but not as closely as I did for last chapter again. Fair warning: I've never really written a mystery before. The closest I've come is the first half of my fic "How Does It Feel." But I will be trying to write some original cases. I haven't thought of many ideas for them yet, but I'm working on it. Thank you for all your support so far!


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